April 19-Good Friday

It is Good Friday. The day our Savior willingly went to the cross to be crucified for you and I. It doesn’t seem like a day which we should call “good” does it? There are several explanations. One is that is was originally “God’s Friday” and yet another, (my favorite) is on this day Christ showed His great love for man and purchased eternal life for him, hence a very good day indeed. 


Which ever your take, since the Last Supper with the disciples, Jesus has been betrayed, whipped, unjustly tried in a kangaroo court with lies presented as evidence, mocked and spit upon. A crown of thorns shoved upon his head, beaten and made to carry His own cross up Golgotha’s hill. When His physical body could no longer withstand the punishment, a man from the crowd was made to carry it the rest of the way. No part of this was legal nor deserved yet the Son of God who had commanded all manner of miracles over the last three years (from healing the sick to making dead people live again to a transfiguration of himself) chose this time for none. On this day, God became fully human to carry our sin to the death. It makes tears cover my face just to write it out. 


This Passover day. The day that the 100,000 men of Jerusalem turned into somewhere around 2-2.5 million. Think of a city you know swelling with 20-25 times the population! I can’t fathom it. It’s like taking Kansas City, St Louis and 1/2 of the rest of the state of Missouri and sending them all to Springfield! Or nearly the entire state of Oklahoma and sending them all to Norman! Yeah...CROWDED and crazy. A quarter of a million lambs were slain that day. So the streets must have been running with blood.


And yet the only perfect Lamb, the one slain for us, was taken outside the city gates and murdered between two thieves. It’s inconceivable, isn’t it? It couldn’t have happened without His consent. Without His plan from the foundation of the world. His holy and pure sacrifice spells reckless love by a God we can never ever understand or begin to wrap our brains around. 


Oh Jesus, before I spoke a word you truly were singing over me, you have been so so good to me. Before I took a breath, you breathed your life in me. Your overwhelming, never ending reckless love that chases me down and fights until I’m found, leaves the ninety and nine. I don’t deserve nor earn it, still, this day, you gave your life away. Teach me dear Jesus’s to remember this day, every day and to learn how to love just a little like you. Thank you for crashing down the walls and storming the mountains—whatever it took to get to me just because you loved me with that crazy, relentless love of yours. Amen and amen. 


Love you dear one,

Pam

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